Akron Roundtable: Chris Bloomfield, VP of multi-media rights, Learfield

Date and Time

• Thursday, Jul 18, 2024  12pm

Location

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Details

About Our Speaker: Chris serves as a Vice President of multi-media rights for Learfield. Chris has been in this role for five years and oversees personnel and sponsorship sales at fifteen University Athletics Departments, including Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green State, Bucknell, Central Michigan University, Drexel, Eastern Michigan University, Lehigh, Marshall, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, University of Delaware and Western Kentucky University.

Chris was previously General Manager of the Western Kentucky property (nine years), where the program’s revenue growth reached unprecedented levels. Before WKU, Chris launched Learfield’s (formerly ISP Sports) partnership at the University of Washington (three years) and worked at the University of Texas at Austin property (six years) as an Account Executive.

Chris received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alberta and his Masters in Sports.Management from the University of Texas at Austin.

Learfield was established in 1972, when co-founders Clyde Lear and Derry Brownfield started a farm radio network heard over six Missouri radio stations. Three years later marked the company’s first foray into sports as the radio rights distributor for the University of Missouri, who is still a partner today. In parallel, Host Communications pioneered the collegiate multimedia business in 1974 with a network radio contract with the University of Kentucky, adding NCAA representation in 1976. In 2007, IMG Worldwide acquired Host Communications and The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC). Winston-Salem-based ISP was founded by local entrepreneur and Wake Forest alum, Ben Sutton. Starting with his alma mater they continued growing the business with other college and conference relationships.